“This building will be the next generation of environmental apartment living at Olympic Park”

Philip Vivian

Director, Bates Smart

Bates Smart has won an invited design competition for a new residential tower, at Sydney Olympic Park. This will be the third residential tower undertaken by the practice at Olympic Park. The 34 storey tower contains 378 apartments and a series of dramatic vertical communal sky gardens providing environmental benefits.

The design concept for the tower creates a new ‘vertical community’ and achieves high levels of environmental performance with exceptional residential amenity. It is simultaneously the edge condition, entry marker and gateway on a site where the Olympic Park meets Bicentennial Park and where city meets nature.

Project Director Philip Vivian explains the design approach:
"The design response is a unique triangular shaped tower that is a slender entry marker to Olympic Park, while also responding to its pivotal location. The soft corners reflect the elliptical towers further along Australia Avenue, while vertical gardens continue the landscape of Bicentennial Parklands into the third dimension."

Environmentally the design cleans, filters and cools air to apartments and common areas, provides cross ventilation to apartments and common areas, shades apartments in summer while admitting winter sunlight. This building will be the next generation of environmental apartment living at Olympic Park.

Signature Tower for Kuala Lumpur

Bates Smart's Sydney studio was invited to participate in an international design competition for a signature tower in the new Kuala Lumpur International Financial District (KLIFD) since renamed Tan Rusuk Exchange.

Two kilometres south of Kuala Lumpur City Centre (KLCC), the development has the potential to transform Kuala Lumpur's identity as a global financial centre, with the tower acting as a beacon for the entire development.

"Our design integrates current workplace thinking, creating three large highly interconnected work spaces, with hubs at the natural intersection of circulation and form. The resulting floorplate is flexible, efficient, and designed for financial services firms in today’s knowledge economy.

'Inspired by the growth patterns of bamboo, the organic triangular form is highly efficient in terms of wind shear, creating a cost effective structure. The environmental approach is integral to the architecture, with a layered facade reducing heat load and glare, while recalling traditional architecture.'

The building elegantly tapers to create an omni directional iconic profile on the skyline, its warm soft glassy image theatrically playing with the Petronas Towers to create a uniquely Malaysian skyline.

This building’s timeless design will be attractive and adaptable to the needs of tenants through the next century.

The design is now short-listed with designs from SOM and Foster + Partners from an original field of twelve.

“The Site Required a Special Response, Both to the Rich Local Historic Context and the Rapidly Development Built Environment”

Philip Vivian

Director, Bates Smart

Located on a prominent corner in the heart of Sydney’s bustling Haymarket, the 180 Thomas Street project was won through a City of Sydney Design Excellence Competition. The design achieved bonus height and FSR on the basis of design excellence.

The new commercial development and integrated workplace has responded to challenging site restrictions and a rapidly evolving urban context to deliver a worthy addition to Sydney’s fast-emerging architectural precinct of Haymarket.

The design challenge was to build on top of an existing building which had columns and a central lift core integrated into its original design restricting floorplate flexibility and reducing connectivity. Our solution was to place a series of steel transfer trusses on top of the existing structure. This allowed the floorplate to cantilever beyond the existing building, increasing the floor area and aligning with the street wall while also providing flexibility with the column grid.

A steel structure was chosen to avoid increasing the load on the existing structure. The lifts were relocated to the exterior of the building and enclosed in a vertical glass volume to express the building’s vertical movement while enlivening the Ultimo Pedestrian Network.

"Located diagonally across from the new Frank Gehry UTS building, the design needed a strong presence. The architectural form reinterprets the semi-industrial linear forms of historic Haymarket to create a contemporary building that respects the diverse scale and context of the area.

"The form is articulated into a series of seemingly random, stacked, horizontal volumes of varying heights. Each horizontal layer is expressed by a different solar shading system, creating a layered effect of stacked, linear boxes."

The lobby is a transparent glass volume beneath the building, between the lifts and original structure. A dramatic public artwork by Lucas Grogan on the building wall frames the lobby.

“To be a global city Sydney must have ambitions beyond a 1970s landmark”

Philip Vivian

Director, Bates Smart

Bates Smart was one of three of Sydney’s leading design firms invited by the Urban Taskforce to create a vision for Sydney in 2050 which challenges the current height limits.

Lead by Philip Vivian the Bates Smart vision for the sustainable future growth of Sydney links sustainability, transport and economic development. ‘For Sydney to sustainably increase density it needs a fully integrated transport system. Our proposal is for future supertall development in the city to fund a sustainable transport system' says Philip Vivian.

The scheme proposes a new Rapid Transit system to service the CBD and inner ring suburbs of Sydney, while the existing heavy rail network will service outer ring suburbs as well as provide an express service to the city centre. To directly link supertall development to a sustainable transport network, supertall buildings are allowed within 200m of a transport node in the city centre.

The economic uplift to these zones will be captured through the purchase of ‘Supertall Floor Space’ from the Government, which will go directly to pay for a new rapid transit system. Using the current value of Heritage Floor Space as a benchmark, and compounding its value over 35 years Bates Smart estimates this realizes $7.1 Billion to fund a sustainable transport network.These principles have been quantified in a parametric model to create a future vision of Sydney.

The concept allows for a potential 12.5 million sqm of new floor space resulting in significant economic uplift for Sydney.

Masterplan for RandwickCreative interpretation of the existing landscape

Newmarket Green

Bates Smart has recently completed a masterplan for Newmarket Green for CBUS Property.

Led by Studio Director, Matthew Allen, the project will provide 750 new dwellings and 2000m2 retail space for the Randwick area.

The five hectare masterplan celebrates the site’s unique heritage as a racehorse stables and sales venue through adaptive reuse of the heritage buildings and, working with Arcadia Landscape Architects, creative interpretation of the existing landscape character.